New Release Excerpt: Boy of Blood – Megan O’Russell

Boy of Blood

After Nightland’s vicious attack on the domes, the safety and perfection of the world within the glass has been contaminated. Desperate to rebuild, outsiders are allowed into the domes to help, breaking the cardinal rule: outsiders and Domers must always be separated. But the city is in shambles, crumbling into chaos without the Vampers of Nightland to keep order, and one name is carried on the wind: Nola.

Clinging to Jeremy, Nola struggles to find a way to exist in the domes, turning her back on all she learned in the city. But when one of the outsiders brings the dark secrets of the domes to light, the line between survival and murder blurs against the spectre of the dying world.

Can Nola follow the dark path laid out by the Domes? Will the dangers of the night become her new sanctuary?

EXCERPT!

BOY OF BLOOD by Megan O’Russell

Excerpt from Chapter Three

“I’m a traitor.” The words rushed from her as though they had been waiting for their chance for weeks. “I betrayed the domes, and everyone that died is dead because of me.”

Jeremy’s brow wrinkled in confusion, but she didn’t stop; he needed to know everything. She had been selfish in wanting to tell Captain Ridgeway. It was Jeremy that her betrayal would hurt most. He deserved to hear the terrible truth first.

“I didn’t mean to. It didn’t start that way,” Nola pushed on. “It started at the Charity Center the day of the riot. Kieran Wynne was there. He stole my I-Vent. He told me if I needed him, I could find him at Nightland.”

Jeremy turned away, but Nola took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her, making sure he heard the whole unbearable truth.

“I wasn’t going to go after him, but then someone with dome medicine was killed on the streets, and I needed to know if it was him. I broke out and went into the city. I knew the way through the glass—one loose pane. One stupid, loose pane I had known about for years. Kieran was alive, but I met Emanuel, the leader of Nightland, and his little girl. She was dying. A little girl was dying, and they needed more medicine. I stole it for them. I thought I was done. I thought she was saved and it was over, but then you said the guards were going to raid Nightland, and Kieran, Emanuel, and his little girl would all have been killed. So I left through the glass again to warn them. I was never kidnapped. I went to warn them.”

“They stabbed you, Nola,” Jeremy said, latching onto the one thing that could show her innocence.

“They thought I was a guard. I stole a coat to stay safe in the rain. They thought a guard was attacking. They didn’t mean to hurt me. But by the time I woke up, it was two days later. Emanuel said the kidnapping story was the only way to get me home. I didn’t even know if I wanted to come home, they all seemed so good. Trying to feed the city, trying to build a new world for everyone, but Emanuel said it was the only way to prevent a war, and they had to send me back. I trusted him. I trusted Kieran.”

Nola spoke through her sobs, feeling Jeremy’s anger growing, but it wasn’t over. Not yet.

“They taught me a lie. What to tell you had happened—that they had taken me and locked me up—but they didn’t tell me how horrible living with the lie would be. Being here in the sunlight and knowing how many good people were trapped in the dark. I wanted to go help them. I would have left. But then they attacked. I didn’t know they were coming. I swear to you I didn’t. I never thought they would attack my home. But they did. Kieran was here with the others. I saw him. He was stealing from the domes while the Nightlanders were murdering people. I didn’t know, I promise I didn’t know that they were going to attack. But it doesn’t matter. I betrayed the domes. I betrayed you and my mother, and everything that the domes are supposed to stand for.”

Megan O’Russell is the author of the young adult fantasy series The Tethering, and Nuttycracker Sweet, a Christmas novella. Megan’s short stories can also be found in several anthologies, including Athena’s Daughters 2, featuring women in speculative fiction. Megan is a professional performer who has spent time on stages across the country and is the lyrist for Second Chances: The Thrift Shop Musical, which received its world premier in 2015. When not on stage or behind a computer, Megan can usually be found playing her ukulele or climbing a mountain with her fantastic husband.